The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1887-11-03

it oo1ld not, then it does seem that it
was the duty of the Legislature to put
down the tuition in proportion to the
relation Of the appropriation to the
whole amount needed to support the
University.
Fer several years the State has paid
to the University $4,000 and-which
it vas bound to pay any way-s7 800
OF the Land Script. The University
received only five or six thousand from
tuiticn and room rent. IF the State
had only added that five or six thou
sand to its appropriation, the Univer-
sity could have been opened Tree to
all tie youth OF the State aud still all
the work could have been done in its
halls that was done. So, by the act
of the Legislature the institution has
been to the very verge of free tuition.
Was it 'practicable" to add that 9th
er small amount to secure so great a
provision for all the youth of the
Sta.e? We must take the oath-bound
action of the Legislature as proof that
it was not.
IF is said that it was not "practi-
cable to put the tuition and room
rent lower than $40, lest it should not
sufficiently supplement the appropria-
ton, [ answer that, instead of requir-
ing (actually) less than half the stu
dents to pay $40, they might possibly
have raised more money (and would
probably have had larger number
Of stldents) by putting the charges
very low-say at about S25 or $50
per term; for it must be accepted as
true that the less the tuition fee, the
more who can and will pay it. Sup
pose we estimate the necessary expen-
ses per year for board, tuition, room,
bookg, ETC., at 5000 OF this the for
mer charge for tuition and room, ETC.,
was $50, only S15 less than half the
whole amount. That is certainly an
appreciable amount of expense to the
average number of the class who have
sons whom they wish to educate Out
of two hundred students it appears
that about seventy paid $50 a year.
See Row it works: These seventy
nearly all of them North Carolinians
had to pay for their tuition and
therein pay for over one hundred to
go on without having paid tuition. 1
contend it would have been better and
fairer to have raised that $4,000 by
adding to the tax cent or two on the
$1,000 worth of property throughout
the State, than to have exacted the
whole $4,000 from that seventy; es-
pecialIy in. view of the fact that that
seventy had already paid their pro-
portion of the tax to raise the amount
of the States appropriation. 1t is a
queer idea of "practicable' that it
means that it is easier for seventy men
to paw SS5 piece than it is for all the
people Of the State to pay cent or
two OH each thousand dollars of prop
erty as appraised.
THE WAY TO HELP THE COMMON
SCHOOLS.
It is argued that it is wrong for the
State to appropriate even as much as
it does to the University where SO few
can be educated, and to provide so
poorly for the education of the chill
dren in the public schools. The min
ute calculation has been made that the
State appropriates over 800 for each
University student and less than one
dollar for each child in the public
school. This is very effective argu-
ment for the demagogue and no doubt
deceives a great many well-meaning
persons. There are several easy ans
wers TO it. The State needs both high.
er education and primary education.
1t needs higher education to train its
men for difficult and responsible posi-
tions. Hence it must have a Univer-
sity. 1t also needs higher education
because it needs.and must have public
schools, and the history of education
proves that higher education comes
first and must come first in order to
insure the establishment and support
of efficient lower schools. This has
been argued sufficiently in preceding
pages. Such was the policy of our
State fathers. They provided for the
University first as the best way to Sc
cure both. The principle holds good
yet and always will.
But again, as the State must have
a Universit it must make it equal
to the work required of it. Therefore
it must make it as good for two hun
dred students as for one thousand
just as train for the people to travel
on must be as reliable in carrying
each one of two hundred safely as in
carrying each of one thousand safely !;
or as a doctor to treat each one of two
hundred fever patients successfully
mnst have as much medical knowledge
andas varied an assortment of medicines
IS he would need to treat each one of
of one thousand fever patients. But
these few young men that get higher
education are an indirect benefit to
the masses in many ways. They help
the State In its important work for all
its citizens They guard and foster tie
interest of the State. They fill va
rious offices for the interest of the
State. They do thousand things for
the people that the people cannot do
for themselves. In this day of great
ard advancing knowledge, it is vain
to talk about great State like North
Carolina getting on safely without
highly educated men; and if it has
them, it must either train its own sons
into competent intellectual manhood
or take the risk Gas even now il has to
do too often) Of importing or receiving
those not "to the manner born, the
more favored sons of other more iber-
81 and progressive communities.
But / turn the argument and con
tend that If the State had but a few
thousand more Ct don't admit such